


On the subject of a portrait

by Glass Wolf (tlanon)



Series: Unexpected Verse [6]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: my head canons about potraits on display
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-09-01
Updated: 2007-09-01
Packaged: 2019-11-08 18:14:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17986181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tlanon/pseuds/Glass%20Wolf
Summary: James has an encounter with Snape's portrait and seeks out Professor Longbottom to talk about it.





	On the subject of a portrait

**Author's Note:**

> First comments are screened and will never be read so please don't leave any. I don't even log into this account except when I'm adding older works simply so anyone who may be interested in them may read them.
> 
> I do not edit these fics this is simply archiving so all original mistakes are preserved Be Warned.
> 
> This fic has been backdated as close to its original publication date as I can get. This fics were previous uploaded under my current account Marf_redux but I disliked having my old stuff up with my new so I moved all my old stuff over here.

On the Subject of a Portrait

Neville Longbottom opened the door to his office to find James Potter standing there looking a bit upset. “You should be in bed.” He said calmly. “I don’t think you need any more trouble after that incident in with the first year flying class.” He saw James blush and look down.

“Please professor it’s really important.” Neville waved him in and set down behind his desk. He waited for James to speak and then after a while he finally did. “I got sent to the headmasters office after that thing.” Neville noticed he blushed harder. “And anyway Professor Lancaster told me to wait while he checked the hospital wing.” He looked rightfully ashamed and Neville once again waited. “While I was up there this portrait next to MacGonogall’s of this really ugly bloke started badmouthing me and my dad.” So one of Harry’s kids had finally met the portrait of Severus Snape and it had gone as well as he thought it would.

Neville motioned for him to continue it would be easier to explain when he learned exactly what Snape had said to upset him so much. “He just kept going on about how all Potters were alike. He looked down. “I started yelling back at him and several of the other portraits told me to calm down and finally the Dumbledore one spoke and told them all to be silent.” He looked down then. “Then Professor Lancaster returned and told me I was in luck no lasting harm done but I’d have detention for the next six months.” Neville knew what was coming. “The git of a portrait said I should be kicked out and not let stay just cause my Dad was famous.” He then looked down. “Professor Lancaster said that it was his decision Severus.” And Neville knew they finally had come to the heart of the matter. “Was that the guy Al was named after?” Neville nodded and James exploded. “How could dad name Al after that bastard?” Neville looked at him and James blushed. “Sorry Professor.”

“It’s all-right Severus Snape was a bastard.” Neville said casually. “But he was a bastard on the right side and your dad chose to honor him for that.” He could tell it confused James. “Your Dad prefers to see the best in people not the worst.” He could tell James still didn’t get it. “Your dad forgave Snape for how he treated him in school long ago and chooses to remember only the good Snape did.” He decided to be honest. “I certainly haven’t.” Neville saw the shock register on James face. “I respect what he did and the risk he took but I’ll never forgive him for the hell he put me through in his class.” He saw that James was staring at him in open mouth awe. “To give you an idea of what it was like for the longest time my Bogart was Professor Snape.” He frowned. “The portrait tried its hardest to keep MacGonogall from hiring me insisting I’d produce a bunch of failure students with my ineptitude.” He laughed. “He still tries to get me fired each time I’m in the headmaster’s office.”

 

“But why surely it can see how well you’ve done almost all of your students get their OWL’s Aunt Hermione said so.” Neville felt a slight flush creeping up his face. Hermione never praised someone for no reason.

“Portraits can’t change James.” Neville said after a moment and seeing the boy’s confusion. “A Portrait is an image captured of a witch or wizard that simulates their personality at the moment of its completion.” He smiled. “You’ll have to ask your Aunt Hermoine about it if you want specifics but portraits are incredibly complicated magic.” He glanced around. “And Extremely expensive someone has to be very famous of very rich to get a true portrait and most only get one in their entire life.” He smiled. “Of course there are cheaper variations made by enlarging and enchanting existing wizarding pictures but they aren’t the same.”

“But it can learn it knows I’m Harry’s son but I wasn’t born when it was put in.” Neville could tell the boy didn’t understand.

“Tell me James do you still think dropping a bag of dungbombs in on the first year flying class was a good idea?” Neville asked and at James furiously shaking his head no. “That’s what makes you alive and a portrait not.” Neville said with a smile. “If a portrait had been made of you, yesterday it would still think dropping the bag was a neat idea even after learning how many students got hurt and how much trouble you’d be in with your parents and the school.”

“A portrait can add new memories and knowledge to itself it can’t change how it reacts to it.” He looked at James squarely in the eye. “Snape thought I was a useless screw up so the portrait will always believe I’m a useless screw up even if someday my own portrait hung in that room.” He looked pointedly at James. “Snape also hated your dad and his father so it will hate you and your siblings just because you are a Potter.”

“I hope Al never meets it then.” James said showing unusual concern for his younger brother. Neville privately agreed the younger Potter was a bit more sensitive and he often felt Harry had made a mistake naming his son after Snape. Of course he knew Harry saw the world in very black and white terms if you were good he saw the best in you if you were evil he saw the worst.

“You should go to sleep James.” Neville said calmly. “You’ll probably receive a howler from your parents in the morning.” He saw the boy blanch and watched him go. “Just remember James you’re not a portrait you can learn from your screw ups.”

“Thanks Professor and I”ll remember” James said heading off. Neville turned and decided to send Harry an Owl about James meeting Snape and not to be too hard on the boy over the dungbomb incident since meeting Snape in it’s own way was a terrible punishment.

The End.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading


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